HCMC - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has signed a US$37-million loan agreement with Da Nhim-Ham Thuan-Da Mi Hydropower JSC (DHD) to install floating solar photovoltaic power panels in the south-central province of Binh Thuan.

The signing ceremony took place today, October 2, in Hanoi. Under the deal, ADB will provide funding for the installation of 47.5 megawatt peak floating solar panels, which will be located on an existing reservoir of DHD’s Da Mi hydropower plant.

This project marks the first large-scale installation of floating solar panels in the country as well as the largest one in Southeast Asia.

Christopher Thieme, deputy general director of ADB’s Private Sector Operations Department, said that the project would help bolster the share of renewable energy in Vietnam’s overall energy mix and reduce the country’s reliance on imported fossil fuels such as coal.

The combination of two clean energy technologies, hydropower and solar, can be multiplied in other areas in the country and across the Asia-Pacific region, he said.

The financing package comprises a US$17.6 million loan from ADB’s ordinary capital source, US$15 million in blended concessional co-funding provided by the Canadian Climate Fund for the Private Sector in Asia and a US$4.4 million parallel loan from the Leading Asia’s Private Infrastructure Fund (LEAP) of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

In March 2016, JICA passed a financing plan to contribute US$1.5 billion to LEAP. Since then, JICA has approved combined funding of US$500 million for high-quality infrastructure projects in various fields, such as healthcare projects in India and Indonesia and renewable energy projects in Thailand and Mongolia.

As for DHD, a subsidiary of the Vietnam Electricity Power Generation Corporation 1, it currently owns and operates four hydropower plants with a combined generation capacity of 642.5 megawatts, accounting for 1.7% of the nation’s total generation capacity.